Word Balloon: The Cisco vs Earp Team

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, a preview of a classic
Western showdown, and a web comic historic look back at the real life
conflicts from the summer of 1968.

Word Balloon host John Siuntres chats with the creative team behind The Cisco Kid Vs Wyatt Earp, writer Len Kody and Artist Eric J. The story from Moonstone Books has a unique twist.

Moonstone will release two books featuring the Cisco/Wyatt encounter,
but each will feature one cowboy's perspective. The Wyatt Earp version
was written by Chuck Dixon and drawn by Enrique Villigan. Both issues
are due later this month.

Len discusses his take on the O Henry anti-hero Cisco, who bears no
resemblance to the smiling hero of the early 1950's TV show, portrayed
by Duncan Renaldo.As Kody explains "In the original short story, Cisco
became a bad man, due to a broken heart. In addition to the Earp
encounter, my story flashes back to an earlier time, that shows what
led Cisco down the wrong path."

Cisco Kid Artist Eric J discusses his western influences and
contributions to the story,and discuss some current and future
projects. A Zenescope Grimm Fairy Tale take on "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" written by Raven Gregory, and a soon to be released Worlds Of Dungeons and Dragons story, from Devils Due.

Kody also talks about the launch of a new web comic depicting the
dramatic events the led up to the infamous Chicago Police/protesters
riot, during the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Chicago 1968 is a weekly web comic, written by Kody and drawn by
newcomer Jenny Frison, depicting events that led to the confrontation
between activist Abbie Hoffman and the Chicago Seven/Yippie
demonstrators, versus the establishment Chicago city government, led by
The Boss, Mayor Richard J Daley. Kody describes the story as "a
dramatic presentation of historical facts"."There's no zombies hiding
out, or any "high concept" twist," says Kody.

He researched the history, trying to capture the tone of the times, by
investigating all perspectives, including one personal connection to
the night of the riot.

"My Grandfather was a Chicago police captain sent to the Conrad Hilton
hotel seen in the infamous 19 minutes of video tape shown that wed
night, when the police, in a very rough fashion, arrested a whole bunch
of hippies yippies and others.

He had his own perspective on how things happened, and of course some
of the protesters who were involved wrote about their own perspectives,
plus the way the history books have portrayed it. The whole subject
fascinated me."

"The point of view my story is a Chicago centric take, showing how the
police and the leaders of Chicago had their pride on the line to host
the Democratic Convention, and guys like Mayor Richard J Daley were not
going to be swayed by a protesting mob.

Not to say that I'm at all defending the police's actions , they
definitely went too far. My political views are with the hippies. The
irony is, if I were around then I would've been protesting with Abbie
Hoffman, and likely be arrested by my own grandfather. It was a very
daunting task to understand where everyone was coming from during this
(event)."